


Dusty Prints Mark the Path

by Lazchan



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 13:38:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17122388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazchan/pseuds/Lazchan
Summary: Yoon muses on where he started to where he is now and all the changes in between





	Dusty Prints Mark the Path

**Author's Note:**

> This was my piece for the Yona zine! I've been terrible in not putting it up, but I hope you all enjoy.

Sometimes, it was so quiet that Yoon's ears rang with the absence of sound. It wasn't that he was completely alone in his village; it was just that those that used to make the most sound were gone, and no matter how long they waited, no one ever came back. Off for more money or opportunities, or simply taken without their own desires brought into account.

Yoon decided early on that rich people, privileged nobles, and kings were worthless and greedy. They took and took, without thinking of the lives they ruined. This king wanted a war; that general wanted to conquer; this one was too stupid to stop any of it and raise his voice to the contrary. If he ever met one of the nobles face to face, he was going to let them know just how much of a pain they were. 

It wasn't as bad at first, when his mother was still close to him. She taught him to read and the basics of medicine and cooking, and every time a trader would come through and there was still plenty of money, she would bargain away enough for not just food and a new set of clothing, but also books for him to read. 

Yoon didn't know enough to save her when she unexpectedly got sick. Helpless and unable to save her, he had been forced to watch her drift away from him, one day at a time, until all that was left to do was tend to her grave. When the next trader came through, he begged for a book of herbal medicine to study so that he wouldn't lose anyone ever again. Knowledge was everything, and if he had just been a little smarter, he wouldn't be alone in a house that once seemed too small for his family. 

Yoon watched not only his mother, but the once active village die as well. It wasn't as if it was an anomaly in any of the villages in the Fire Tribe, or so did the traders say before they stopped coming. Most villages were bereft of people, of food and life, and Yoon wondered if the other tribes were doing as poorly as his own. They used to have so much pride in being the tribe that came from Hiryuu, the first king of their country, and that pride was all that remained. 

Everywhere were whispers that the gods and their king had abandoned them. Yoon didn't believe in the gods, but he knew that kings were so high up they didn't realize there was a ground below them. _Let the nobility scrounge around in the dirt, let them see what it was like to go hungry and be scared of what each day would bring._

He would never help anyone as stupid as someone who thought the gods would help if they whined enough at them; he would never trust anyone that came from the castle that loomed so large in the minds of the people. The people inside never looked past their fancy walls to even think about the people starving below. 

~

The quiet that surrounded the cottage he and Ik-soo lived in was a different sort than the one in his village. Even if there were fewer people around, Yoon never felt alone, because there was the idiot priest to look after. Yoon learned how to garden, to clean and sew. Ik-soo knew how to do it, he was sure, but he was so lost in his head half the time that Yoon took over a lot of the chores. Whenever he had the chance, he studied the few precious books he had about medicine so that he could not only patch up Ik-soo when he inevitably fell down, but also in case he met anyone else that needed help. 

It was a good life; quiet and still; and he had a purpose here. He and Ik-soo kept each other from being alone in the world. Yoon told himself that he didn't need anything else; even when Ik-soo talked to him about his travels around the kingdom, Yoon always batted away Ik-soo's careful suggestions to explore as well. If he left, then the airhead wouldn't have anybody. Yoon refused to leave him alone. 

Ik-soo was always good to tell him about their country, even if he heavily flavored it with how the gods shaped Kouka itself. He would never admit it, but his favorite stories were of Hiryuu and how he formed the Fire Tribe. He only vaguely spoke of the other countries that surrounded Kouka, but every time he did, his voice held an emphasis to 'remember' and be cautious. Not like I'll ever leave Ik-soo's side, he thought, each time that one of these lessons was brought up. Ik-soo couldn't survive without him, and Yoon didn't know if he wanted to survive without Ik-soo. 

Yoon didn't believe in gods that would let a scatterbrain like Ik-soo get hurt all the time, to the point that he had to hide away from the very people he wanted to help. Their cottage was in no-man's land, tucked away in a forgotten spot between the Fire and Wind Tribes. They could travel to the next village within a day, and Yoon would do that as often as he dared to bring food to the destitute villagers.

Ik-soo never went with him on those trips. It wasn't just how Ik-soo's heart would break from the pain in the world outside their cottage, over the poor and the sick and the forgotten. It was how lost he would get in his own head; how trusting he was still. He would give the clothes off his back and all the food in his hands just to help those that looked at him with big eyes. Yoon was determined that no one could have Ik-soo, because no one deserved the only person that seemed good in the world.

No matter how much Yoon scoffed, Ik-soo always went down to the cliffs, praying to the gods and trying to find solace in the voices that reached out to him. If Yoon believed in the gods, he would yell at them for giving the priest both nightmares and hope, and being the cause of his suffering throughout the years. He couldn't blame Ik-soo for having faith - but on the nights that Yoon stayed up, watching over Ik-soo and soothing him out of bad dreams - he wished he didn't have so much of it. Yoon knew it wasn't fair; it was the nobles that caused the most pain, and they always would be. 

_The first time I see one of them, I will make sure I give them a piece of my mind._

~

Yoon had never been so far from home. It was an experience he’d never dreamed existed; all the years of studying and learning about the kingdom had not prepared him for the reality of the road, of the different villages and even different kingdoms. There were the mythical dragons, the princess and even the stupid prophecy; and even though he had hated all of that from the start, he would do anything for them. They were his family as much as Ik-soo was; all of them were idiots that didn't know how to stop from walking over the edge of the cliff.  

It was night time and in the small tent that he shared with Yona, she was a comfortable weight against him, her breathing slow and steady. She had been a surprise, and almost from the start. There had been that flash of what he expected at the beginning, with her taking Hak for granted and not thinking about what he’d sacrificed. But the part of him that had seen beyond his bitter feelings had noticed that the girl was awkward and uncertain, and as alone as he had been, all those years ago. 

He wouldn't give up his idiot beasts for the world. They were frustrating and stupid and wild at times; they didn't think before they acted and no matter where they went, mad schemes ran rampant and all manner of disguises abounded. It was a hilarious balance, even if Yoon would never admit it to himself, to the danger and tragedy that they came across as well. The kingdom was crumbling in more than one place. _Good thing they have me, the beautiful genius, to lend some logic and brains to help fix the mess._

Yoon sometimes wondered if his village was still standing, or if everyone else had crumbled away from lack of food or medicine, or any sort of care at all. He had come across so many villages in the Fire Country that resembled his, all of them teetering on the edge of survival. If the Happy Hungry Bunch had come to his village when he was a kid, would he have stayed, bolstered by hope and the idea of change? He snorted to himself. _Not likely. I would have thrown rocks at them and stolen their food and run away._ As little in trusting as he was now, he had even been less so as a kid. 

Ik-soo coming to the village and showing him kindness and the path out had saved him in more ways than one.


End file.
